Then she stopped abruptly and the flush on her cheek deepened, for at that moment Lord Redgrave came up the companion way from the lower deck carrying a big silver tray with a coffee pot, three cups and saucers, a rack of toast, and a couple of plates of bread and butter and cake.
Just then a sort of social miracle happened.

The fact was that Mrs.Van Stuyler had never before had her early coffee brought to her by a peer of the British Realm.

She thought it a little humiliating afterwards, but for the moment all sorts of conventional barriers seemed to melt away.

After all she was a woman, and some years ago she had been a young one.

Lord Redgrave was an almost perfect specimen of English manhood in its early prime.